The right prescription for heart patients (From Gazette & Herald)

The right prescription for heart patients

4:00pm Thursday 28th January 2010

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IT is good to hear the outlook for heart patients has improved in the short time since Scarborough Hospital was condemned in a national survey.

What’s sad is that the anonymous Cardiology Team has chosen in last week’s Gazette letters to claim the information was “inaccurate and misleading”.

The details showing death rates for heart patients at Scarborough was more than double that of York came directly from the Dr Foster national survey.

In correspondence with me, the hospital has made no attempt to dispute the accuracy of the figures in that report. Instead, the hospital told me it had agreed to:

* carry out a review of all heart patient deaths * set up patient safety forums

* improve patient coding and recording systems

* appoint a clinical governance manager, leading on patient safety

* work with a successful trust

It now says mortality rates for heart patients at Scarborough have been reduced to a lower level than that revealed in the survey.

That is a welcome development with the new figure for death rates just below the national average – although still significantly higher than York.

All of these are positive moves in the right direction – but hardly evidence of there being no problem in the first place.

I hope that the measures will result in continued progress towards mirroring the excellent results for heart patients recorded at York.

That would be the right prescription for a good outcome all round.

Howard Keal, Malton and Thirsk Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate, Norton

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